DNI Report on Guantanamo Detainees Who Returned to Terrorism

Here's the summary of the new report of the Director of National Intelligence on the number of detainees released from Guantanamo who returned to terrorist associations and activities.

Since President Obama took office:

[O]f the 66 former Guantanamo detainees transferred since President Obama took office, “2 are confirmed and 3 are suspected of reengaging in terrorist or insurgent activities.”

Under former President Bush: [More...]

The Bush administration freed many more so-called recidivists, the report stated, having transferred 79 confirmed and 66 suspected of subsequently “reengaging in terrorist or insurgent activities after transfer.”

It's interesting the DNI released only the summary of the report. Maybe because the 2009 report claiming a similar high rate was thoroughly debunked by several organizations. Here's one example. Here's another.

[T]he government has previously included detainees "writing anti-U.S. books or articles, or making anti-U.S. propaganda statements" on lists of "recidivists." But any time the government is asserting numbers in matters relating to Gitmo "recidivism," that can't be independently checked, there's reason to be skeptical.

Even the use of the word "recidivist" shows bias, considering most of the detainees were never convicted of committing a crime in the first place, so it's more than a bit of a stretch to describe them as returning to crime.

I'll wait to read what Seton Hall's Mark Denbeaux, the ACLU and the CCR have to say before commenting further. Right now the lack of transparency (by releasing only the summary and not the report), the failure to provide names, and the inability to check their figures, renders the report meaningful only to those who want to use it as support for their indefensible agenda of keeping all terrorist suspects in indefinite detention for life. Where did all these Henny Pennys come from?

"The Director of National Intelligence, in consultation with the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and the Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, shall make publicly available an unclassified summary of -

(1) intelligence relating to recidivism of detainees currently or formerly held at the Naval Detention Facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by the Department of Defense; and

(2) an assessment of the likelihood that such detainees will engage in terrorism or communicate with persons in terrorist organizations."

(Reuters) - WikiLeaks' next assault on Washington may highlight U.S. government reports on suspected militants held at Guantanamo Bay, which some U.S. officials worry could show certain detainees were freed despite intelligence assessments they were still dangerous.

The leaks could be an embarrassment to President Barack Obama's administration, already angered over WikiLeaks document dumps of U.S. State Department cables, as it seeks to fulfill a 2-year-old pledge to close the prison and either release the foreign terrorism suspects or move them elsewhere

in the Guantanamo files. These files will be an indictment of this 'detainee' policy. Not just the torture we've heard about, but the entire sordid mess.

We need to be ready to get slammed in world opinion. I don't wish it, but it's probably going to happen.

I don't know if I've been reading too much Kdog, but the whole oligarchy thing is making more and more sense. I already have thought for years about the Power Elite, as C. Wright Mills wrote about in the 50s.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss...

OT Capt, from your previous posts in the OT- one reason for a study like the one you mentioned-- better health care targeted to specifics-- perhaps to hormonal therapy, things like that. And with governments in much of the 1st World involved in medical care for the elderly, addressing the elderly's concerns can arise out of such studies.

Or because they are Australians, and fund some really neat studies would be another Answer ;-)

As you criminal defense people all know, most people arrested for a crime have committed many other crimes for a long period before the index arrest. "Two confirmed and three suspected" is the tip of the iceberg.
Also, some Obama releases were like the Uighers, who were in GITMO only because no one would take them.